Questions raised over approval of ratepayer-funded crematorium opposite catholic school

A local funeral director and councillor have questioned why Griffith Council has allowed a premises directly opposite Marian Catholic College to build a ratepayer-funded crematorium.

At its meeting on 10 December, the council approved a development application (DA) for its own joint venture with Griffith Regional Funeral Services to build a crematorium at 172-174 Wakaden Street, agreeing to spend $400,000 to purchase the cremator.

A few minutes later, the local government body also approved Trenerry Funerals’ fully privately-funded proposal to build both a human and pet crematorium at 1-3 Battista Street in Yoogali.

Trenerry Funerals’ director Daniel Calabro questioned why council was spending $400,000 of ratepayers’ money on the rival crematorium and how its location was approved.

“When discussions about a crematorium started in 2022, the Griffith Regional Funeral Services premises was zoned as a business enterprise. But now, all of a sudden, it’s zoned to allow for a crematorium. Isn’t that interesting?” he said.

“It’s very odd that something gets rezoned overnight with nobody knowing about it. Rezoning is usually a massive process.

“I thought, ‘There’s no way they’d be allowed to have a crematorium there, opposite a school’ but now it’s zoned correctly thanks to council changing the zoning.”

According to the NSW Government’s Planning department website, an amendment to Griffith’s land zoning map was made to zone 172-174 Wakaden Street as a “general industrial” area on 20 October 2023. This allows for a cremator to be installed there.

On Tuesday, Region asked Griffith Council if and why it rezoned this premises and whether there was any public consultation on this decision. The council said it would need an extra 24 hours to answer these questions and would provide a response by Wednesday afternoon. However, as of Thursday night, the council still had not answered any of our questions.

Region also asked the NSW Government’s Planning Department the same questions. A spokesperson also asked for two extensions to our deadline but we did not receive a response by Thursday night.

Griffith Regional Funeral Services director Peter Woodward said he was not aware of any rezoning.

“Council informed us that our premises are already zoned correctly for a crematorium. There was no application to rezone our premises by us,” he said.

He also said there was a lot of misinformation about his DA for the crematorium that he wanted to clear up.

“This whole process started off in 2022, when the Griffith City Council approached all the funeral directors in Griffith to offer an expression of interest to form a partnership on a crematorium. We were the only ones to say yes, and council accepted it,” he said.

“The initial discussion was to have the cremator located at the new cemetery on Rifle Range Road, but that will be years away, as there is no infrastructure for it there at the moment.

“I therefore suggested we have the cremator at our premises in the short-term, until it can be relocated to the cemetery.

“We are very happy to be a part of this community project and to be able to assist Griffith City Council in providing the cremation facilities to Griffith.”

Griffith councillor Scott Groat also questioned the location of this crematorium.

“It’s near a busy highway and it’s next to a school. That’s the feedback I’m getting from the community. I wouldn’t want a crematorium next to me; it belongs in a parkland right out of town … that’s the case for other crematorium too,” he said.

Region asked Marian Catholic College if it had any concerns about having a crematorium opposite its school and if it was consulted on the DA and apparent rezoning.

“We can confirm that the college was consulted on the submission processes related to the application,” principal Dr Penny Ludicke said in a statement.

Mr Calabro said he told Griffith Council he was going to build a private crematorium in town before council pursued its own plans with Griffith Regional Funeral Services. He said ratepayers’ money should not be spent on the joint venture.

“I don’t care if there’s two crematoriums or even six crematoriums in town, but none of them should be paid for using your or my rates, by people who may never use the service. Council should stick to being a council, not delving into private business,” he said.

Mayor Curran said Trenerry Funeral’s plans to build its own cremator was “commercial in confidence information that council staff did not breach”.

Councillor Groat said: “Council says it had to keep [Trenerry’s plans for a crematorium] confidential for business reasons, but there’s a big difference between keeping it confidential and not knowing about it.”

Region understands the $400,000 council agreed to spend on the crematorium is not yet budgeted and will need to be formally approved by a majority of councillors at a future meeting.